Getty Images Files for Bankruptcy amid Restructuring
The company plans to go private by the end of this year.
Getty Images has filed for bankruptcy, advancing its earlier-revealed restructuring plan with the goal of going private.
As reported by Reuters, the photo agency filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Wednesday, October 21, in the Delaware bankruptcy court. Getty Images listed both estimated assets and liabilities assets and liabilities in the range of $1 billion to $10 billion. The company says affiliates of the Getty family and Koch Equity Development committed to providing up to $533 million in new equity and will own 100% of the stock photography company after the restructuring. Getty Images says that financing from Koch Equity Development of up to $143 million will support the restructuring process.
The visual content provider expects to finish the process before the year ends. Getty says contributors, partners, customers, employees, and vendors will not be affected.
"Today's filing is a procedural step to implement the financial restructuring previously announced. Getty Images continues to operate normally, serving customers and supporting contributors and partners around the world. This process addresses our capital structure and certain non-operating liabilities and supports expanded investment into our content and services," said Craig Peters, Chief Executive Officer of Getty Images.
Getty Images is a Seattle-based visual media company that supplies stock images, editorial photography, video, and music for businesses and consumers. Its library holds more than 477 million assets. In January 2025, Getty Images and Shutterstock announced a merger deal. However, this year, Getty officially abandoned the plan after the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) completed its investigation. Reportedly, the merger collapsed because of debts and increasing competition from AI content.